C# Attributes: One Attribute to Rule Them All?

Question

Is it possible to assign an attribute on a property and use it in order to assign other attributes - doing so without using reflection?

The code:

public class CashierOut : BaseActivity
{
    [Description("Flag indicates whether break to execution.")]
    [DefaultValue(false)]
    [MyCustomAttribute(ParameterGroups.Extended)]
    public bool CancelExecution { get; set; }

    [Description("Flag indicates whether allow exit before declation.")]
    [DefaultValue(true)]
    [MyCustomAttribute(ParameterGroups.Extended)]
    [DisplayName("Exit before declaration?")]
    public bool AllowExitBeforeDeclare { get; set; }
}

I would like to do something like this:

public class CashierOut : BaseActivity
{
    [MyResourceCustom("CashierOut.CancelExecution")]
    public bool CancelExecution { get; set; }

    [MyResourceCustom("CashierOut.AllowExitBeforeDeclare")]
    public bool AllowExitBeforeDeclare { get; set; }
}

public sealed class MyResourceCustom : Attribute
{
    public string ResourcePath { get; private set; }

    public ParameterGroupAttribute(string resourcePath)
    {
        ResourcePath = resourcePath;

        // Get attributes attributes value from external resource using the path.
    }
}

Answer 1

Attributes simply add meta data to the members they are defined on - by themselves they do nothing.

You will have to use reflection in order to produce some behaviour depending on the attribute values.

This is how all attributes work - some of the tooling is aware of some attributes (like the compiler and the ConditionalAttribute), but this is still done via reflection.

Answer 2

Look into Aspect Oriented Programming. You can use tools like postsharp to modify your code either at compile or runtime.